says, "If a person is about to die, his words are good." Even corruption officials Heshen . When the Emperor Jiaqing took Heshen to death, Heshen's life entered a five-day countdown. The king asked his ministers to die, but the ministers had to die. Heshen knew he was powerless to turn the world back, and his mentality was instantly calm.
Jiaqing is preparing to execute his sentence in 5 days, but when Jiaqing talked to him, Heshen faced him calmly and said that The first greed of the Qing was not him, Heshen, but someone else.
Heshen's good
In fact, looking back at Heshen's life, he is a very smart, good at learning and responsible person. It can be said that Heshen had all the innate conditions to become a big man.
Heshen's intelligence can be said to be very comprehensive and not biased in subject matter. What is particularly rare is that he has a high emotional intelligence and is very good at observing his expressions. He was even smart enough to guess the questions of the imperial examination from the emperor's words.
"Returning to the Field Trivial Records" records that when Heshen was in charge of the imperial examination, his former teacher Wu Shengqin came to ask for help, and even knelt down and worshiped Heshen as his teacher. Wu Shengqin's purpose is very simple. He failed the exam many times, hoping that Heshen can help him.
However, the questions of the scientific examination were sealed by the emperor, and no one could know the content of the test questions in advance, and Heshen naturally did not know them either. But seeing that the former teacher was so sincere, he began to think of a way to go.
Or maybe Heshen is smart, the ancient scientific examinations were nothing more than the content of classic ancient books such as the Four Books and Five Classics. As long as you know which ancient book the emperor has read recently, you can roughly guess the question?
Heshen immediately found the eunuch around the emperor for inquiries, and then he learned that Qianlong had been reading "The Doctrine of the Mean". Thinking of some government affairs that Qianlong talked about recently, Heshen actually guessed Qianlong's scope of questioning very accurately.
Sure enough, Wu Shengqin won the first place in one fell swoop and embarked on the road of officialdom in one fell swoop.
In fact, when Heshen was a teenager, Wu Shengqin saw that he was very smart and must be an ordinary person. "Reading to the World" records that Heshen was studying in an official school when he was in his teens, and Wu Shengqin was his teacher.
Other students usually recite poems and write poems or travel around, but Heshen hardly copied Qianlong's handwriting. Wu Shengqin was very curious and stepped forward to ask, and the answer he got surprised Wu Shengqin. Heshen did this so that when he entered the government in the future, he could gain the favor of the emperor through fonts.
Heshen was only twelve or thirteen years old at that time, and he could have such ambition and intelligence, so Wu Shengqin took special care of Heshen from then on. It is precisely because of this that Wu Shengqin came to ask for help this time, and Heshen also gave him no money to help.
We look at it and two simple events show that Heshen is not only smart, but also has a strong goal in doing things and knows how to be grateful. It is precisely because of this that even though Heshen's journey to the imperial examination in the future was not smooth and he became a guard, he still relied on his intelligence and wisdom to win the favor of Qianlong.
And he was also the only person around Qianlong who walked from the guards to the road of peace.
Although Heshen is smart, he never is arrogant. On the contrary, he is very humble and likes to study. Otherwise, how could Heshen, who was a guard, hear that Qianlong quoted the Analects of Confucius to express his dissatisfaction with the court officials?
Qianlong was very surprised that a small guard actually understood his thoughts, which was indeed extraordinary. So he started to promote it, but it is not certain whether Heshen was a blind cat and encountered a dead mouse mouse . So once when Qianlong was reading "Mencius" in the Old Summer Palace, he asked Heshen around him to help him read it.
Unexpectedly, Heshen actually stood in the distance and memorized all the annotations without falling a word. It can be seen how much hard work Heshen put in behind his back. From then on, Heshen officially walked towards the road of peace.
In addition, Heshen has very high attainments in poetry, songs, calligraphy and language. Especially in terms of language, he is proficient in four languages: Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan, and helped him deal with many ethnic issues.
What is particularly valuable is that " Dream of Red Mansions ", which was regarded as a banned book at that time, was also preserved by Heshen, who loved literature.
As for Heshen’s sense of responsibility, it was the excellent quality he had since childhood. As we all know, Heshen lost his mother at the age of 3 and his father at the age of 9, leaving him and his younger brother to depend on each other. But as an older brother, Heshen took on the responsibility of taking care of his younger brother. It can be said that when Heshen was a child, he usually took care of his younger brother as a father and mother.
It can be said that Heshen was definitely appreciated by Qianlong not because of flattery, but because he was a practical practitioner with real talent and knowledge.
Since Heshen is so outstanding, how did he become a greasy corrupt official who is despised by the world?
Heshen’s bad
Heshen is different from other corrupt officials in history. The reason for his greed for money is just one word "protect". This word seems simple, but it makes Heshen spend his whole life.
When he was a teenager, Heshen wanted to protect his younger brother, so he could only endure humiliation and smile and greet him, allowing him to learn to cater to him.
When he was young, he had to protect his life. Although he became a celebrity around the emperor through his intelligence and talent, being with the king is like a tiger after all. If he is not careful, the emperor will finish his life if he is unhappy.
When he was middle-aged, he wanted to protect the emperor. At this time, Heshen had become close friends with the emperor, so he didn't have to worry about his life. But in order to preserve his glory and wealth, he must wholeheartedly solve his worries and problems for Qianlong.
When the emperor had no money, he found a way to raise it. He even came up with a way for officials to use silver to pay off their crimes by making mistakes. He directly sent the money to Office of the Interior . The so-called Office of the Interior is actually the emperor's small treasury.
Looking through the accounts of the Qing Dynasty’s Interior Affairs Office, you can find that Heshen took the lead in making mistakes when he was fine, so the fine he paid was several times that of all the officials.
In addition, Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River to collect beauties, compete for interests in front of the British, resolve the Tibet issue, etc. It can be said that as long as Qianlong had a look, Heshen could understand it immediately and do it properly.
However, what is needed to do things? You need money, you can't do anything without money. In order to make Emperor Qianlong live a comfortable and decent life, he had no choice but to choose to be greedy.
That's it. Qianlong asked Heshen if he needed it, and Heshen would be greedy if he wanted to do things. After finishing the work, Qianlong was happy and continued to let Heshen do something later.
This is repeated over and over again, and Heshen’s nominal first greed was formed. In fact, Heshen was at best a errand runner. Qianlong was the real greedy person in the Qing Dynasty.
Heshen and Qianlong were very clear about this. However, when Qianlong passed away and Heshen was thrown into death row, Heshen took everything lightly. Since you are bound to die, why not speak out and tell Jiaqing everything in your heart.
Heshen’s pathetic
Looking back at Heshen’s life, he was actually very pitiful.
html At the age of 09, he no longer had the love of his parents and could only rely on himself to work hard. Even though he was later appreciated by Qianlong, he was just a slave after all, and spent most of his life solving various troubles for Qianlong.Although he gained wealth and glory through Qianlong, he was despised by the world because of his greed for money and was eventually killed by the emperor's son.
In fact, even now, people have not discovered that Heshen has done anything extremely guilty. Only the only one who is greedy for money is for Qianlong, and in the end he died in prison, which is really pitiful.
Reference materials: "Biography of Heshen", "Draft of History of Qing Dynasty", "Return to the Field"
